I am trying to understand how to create the data mining structure for Microsoft Association Rules technique using Visual Studio Business Intelligence Development Studio 2008. I have a few
books on data mining and have looked on the internet, but I cannot seem to find a simple example of how to use a single table with 2 main columns to produce Microsoft Association Rules results using the business intelligence wizards in Visual Studio 2008.

I have included the simple table that I mentioned in my first post in the event someone would like to try the same example. (ITEM_ID is just a primary key and ignored, ITEMNUM
is the basket number, ITEM is the actual item purchased).

My first step was to test the table in Excel using “Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft® Office® 2010”
to make sure that the table structure was valid. When I run that table in Excel 2010 using the “Associate Model” using:

"Minimum Support" of 2,

"Minimum rule probability" of 20.0,

“Transaction ID” using ITEMNUM and

“Item” using ITEM

I get the following EXCEL partial Data Mining results, which suggests to me that the short table is capable of working in the VS 2008 data mining models.

Probability

Importance

Rule

100 %

0.35

Tomatoes = Existing, paper = Existing -> Marker = Existing

100 %

0.53

Tomatoes = Existing -> Oranges = Existing

100 %

0.13

Tomatoes = Existing, Marker = Existing -> paper = Existing

100 %

0.35

Tomatoes = Existing -> Marker = Existing

100 %

0.13

Tomatoes = Existing, Oranges = Existing -> Choclates = Existing

100 %

0.13

Tomatoes = Existing -> paper = Existing

100 %

0.05

Tomatoes = Existing, Choclates = Existing -> Pencil = Existing

Now, when I use the Data Mining Wizard in VS 2008,

it asks me for the table. I check the “case” box and leave the “nested” box blank

The wizard then presents the three columns in my table (ITEM_ID, ITEMNUM, ITEM). I ignore the ITEM_ID since it is only a row placeholder.

I select ITEMNUM as the “key”

I select ITEM as both “input” and “predictable”
( I has not found a good definition for these terms in my books or on the internet, but the Wizard forces me to select both columns before it will allow me to continue)

I use “Percentage of Data for Testing” 50%

MINIMUM _SUPPORT is has a default of 0

MINIMUM_PROBABILITY has a default of .40, but taking your suggestion I set it to .20 , the same as I used in the EXCEL model

I have tried the Data Mining wizard using many other values ( MINIMUM _SUPPORT = 0 to 2 and MINIMUM_PROBABILITY = .0001 to .30.

and I have doubled the size of the table to 88 rows, but the results are always the same. “The Association Rules algorithm found no rules matching the algorithm parameters for model”

10.If anyone has any links to explain how to run this model or can explain what “input” and “predictable” mean in a two-column table I would be appreciative.